Buses burnt as France marks riots anniversary

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France - Armed men set fire to two buses in a rundown Paris suburb on Friday, the anniversary of two deaths which triggered the worst riots to hit the French capital in nearly 40 years.

A police source said two hooded men boarded one bus in front of a train station in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb in the early evening and ordered around 15 passengers and the driver to get off before setting it alight.

The second bus was attacked in a similar way by two armed men in another area of the suburb, a local official said.

At least five buses have been attacked in poor suburbs around the capital since Sunday and police have said violence could spiral out of control once again. Four thousand extra police were being deployed around France on Friday evening to try and prevent any incidents.

Earlier, hundreds of people marched in silence through Clichy-sous-Bois, where the riots started last year.

"You can really feel the anger and the suffering of the people who live in Clichy-sous-Bois," said Soumeya Ata, who travelled to the suburb north of Paris from the southwestern town of Pau to attend the commemoration.

Around 1000 mainly young people from immigrant families trooped through the high-rise suburb where the riots erupted after the electrocution deaths of Bouna Traore and Zyed Benna. Witnesses said the teenagers died while fleeing police.

Marchers, many sporting T-shirts with the slogan "Dead for Nothing", passed the electrical substation where the two died. Their families wept as they laid flowers at its gate.

Organisers called for quiet reflection to mark the tragedy. Some television crews pulled out after they were threatened by local youths.

Tensions remain high in France's rundown suburbs, where poor job prospects, racial discrimination, a widespread sense of alienation from mainstream society and perceived hostile policing touched off a wave of violence 12 months ago.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy drafted in extra police late on Thursday after transport chiefs said they could withdraw services if the burning of buses continued.

Sarkozy plans to toughen sentences for attacks on police, and law and order will play an important role in the 2007 presidential election in which the conservative frontrunner is expected to run.

The 2005 riots were the worst since student protests in 1968 and the government has highlighted the 420 ($824.98) million euros it has earmarked to improve life in the suburbs.

"Things are better, less bad," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told France Inter radio.

However, local officials see little progress.

"What is being done in order to ensure Clichy does not have three times as many unemployed as the rest of France?" asked Olivier Klein, the Socialist deputy mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois.

Police unions too are ringing alarm bells. They say 14 officers a day are hurt and police face an urban guerrilla war in the suburbs that ring most major French cities.

Several officers have been hospitalised with injuries from beatings after apparently being lured into traps by gangs of youths in recent weeks.

In the first six months of 2006, some 21,000 cars were burnt and 2,882 attacks recorded against the police, fire and ambulance services.

- REUTERS